While in Davos representing Australia at the World Economic Forum, Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has enthusiastically extolled the virtues of the Global Infrastructure Hub as a way of funding an…

Infrastructure projects are ripe for political point scoring. None more so than Private Public Partnerships (PPPs), which allow private companies to profit from key infrastructure. Yet political debate…

Some US bridges are currently living out their twilight years.
Bob JagendorfNovember 19, 2014

There are about 600,000 bridges in the United States, and about one in four is classified as functionally obsolete or structurally deficient. This doesn’t mean they’re in danger of imminent collapse; they…

More than £200m has been spent on failed waste management projects, according to a scathing report by a cross-party group of MPs. The Public Accounts Committee blamed “lax” and “poorly drafted” public-private…

The private sector has driven GM research – but in whose interests?
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center/FlickrJune 29, 2014

In this fifth instalment of GM in Australia – a series looking at the facts, ethics, regulations and research into genetically modified crops – Sky Croeser outlines how most GM research is profit-driven…

The NSW Baird government is relying on asset sales to fund infrastructure, but all state governments have a revenue problem.
AAP/Dan HimbrechtsJune 18, 2014

The fiscal relationship between the Commonwealth and the states in Australia’s federal system is unsustainable in the long term. That statement has been difficult to deny ever since the 1940s, when Canberra…

Sydney’s Cross City Tunnel has gone into voluntary administration twice since it was opened, and the government has become embroiled in legal action to recover costs.
AAP/Dan HimbrechtsMarch 20, 2014

Last week’s Productivity Commission draft report on public infrastructure made a number of useful recommendations about getting projects assessed and delivered on time. But the report does not go far beyond…

New ways are needed to pay for infrastructure, according to the Productivity Commission. But our Asian neighbours are already at work.
AAP/Dean LewinsMarch 18, 2014

Elected with a pledge to be the infrastructure prime minister, Tony Abbott has repeatedly promised to bring more private investment into high-priority infrastructure projects. Last week’s Productivity…

The public versus private debate is oversimplified, and the situation is made worse by the hybrid nature of many so-called “public” organisations.
ShutterstockJanuary 13, 2014

The Federal Government’s Commission of Audit reports at the end of this month. Tasked with identifying where efficiency and productivity improvements may be made across all areas of Commonwealth expenditure…

The oceans cover almost three-quarters of the planet’s surface, and for many people they represent the last great wilderness. But in fact the seas support many human activities, and have done for millennia…